fish out of water

drastics

have been thinking of a drastic change of hair color.

disconnecting

ah

sometimes it’s just necessary to disconnect. it’s so easy to get caught up on the internet for hours. and if i’m going to make use of my time, i can’t just be passively reading about the overwhelming amounts of things that are going on….

inauguration stuff

i spent from sunday to wednesday out of the city.

a friend of mine invited a few of us to go down to stay with her family in alexandria, virgina, and go to the inauguration. out of the ten people she invited, i was the only person to follow through.

i’m going to be completely honest: i was shocked that no one else was moved enough to go. the only “inconveniences” would be a day or two off of work, and a bus ticket home. melanie;s dad was driving down on sunday, so getting down was easy. i guess in the end that fact that we were only two made manouvering the crowds and POORLY organized and labeled event itself significantly easier.

the event itsef was more characterized by its peacefulness, all of its attendents seemingly aware of the historicism of the moment. it was not a political event. it was a historical one. the attendants’ reasons were as varied and even conflicting as the people that Obama himself hopes to represent. but even as critical as i am of the wide spread belief that this one man will change the entire downward spiral of our government and our society, i could not help but BAWL from Obama’s first word to the end of his address. I sobbed like a baby, like the idealist that I thought I had outgrown in the disappointment of four years ago.

revolutionary road

two nights ago i finished the book, that the new movie with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio is based on… basically any semi-educated, slightly progressive and/or social critic’s terrifying nightmare of a future. the characters repeatedly settle for convenience’s sake, while attempting to maintain the self-preserving pretensions at bohemian intellectualism (to which they blatanly fail).

directly after reaching the conclusion to this tragic and dismal novel, i opened my email only to discover that i had been rejected from teach for america. this lead me to predict some equally tragic and dismal life courses for myself. and also, a few side thoughts:

a) for reals?

b) who gets rejected from teach for america anyway?

(my inner critic tells me that this is maybe the snotty attitude that got me rejected in the first place.)

after sobbing on the phone to my mother (poor woman. i also happened to have had a few glasses of wine and felt the most boozey i had since the cleanse, which most likely did not help), my bruised ego recovered today when i was invited for an interview for austin teaching fellows (which is the program that i was actually more interested in). so in the end, all is well, but

CONCLUSION: revolutionary road = my worst nightmare, but an excelent book (by Richard Yates, originally published in 1961).

the reason i like working less

since having relinquished both of my unpaid positions (at BOMB Magazine and Soft Skull Press), which means giving up my 6 day a week schedule, i remembered that i actually enjoy doing things besides curling up by the heater, even if it is january.

for example:

today i saw waltz with bashir. excellent movie that deserves its own post, but which i don’t have the time for, but really awesome. at sunshine on housten.

held my friend kelsy’s hand as she pierced her ear (at new york adorned on second avenue. cutest shop with beautiful jewlery and tatoo designs. really friendly people. i guess they just opened one in williamsburg too)

went to yoga.

went to bookclub.